Sacramento City Council votes to keep drop-in shelters open year round regardless of weather

Members of the Sacramento City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a resolution by Mayor Darrell Steinberg to keep overnight shelters open year-round in the city regardless of the temperature and to expand their mission to include daytime hours and services to help people exit homelessness.

Council members also voted to approve a budget of $3 million to spend on the effort through June 30. Mayor Steinberg, who proposed the new “triage center” model of year-round drop-in shelter, said he would likely seek additional funds in the new fiscal year that starts July 1.

The City is currently funding shelters nightly from about 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Library Galleria and City Hall parking garage downtown, along with the Capitol Seventh-Day Adventist Church in south Sacramento. They have been operating since January, when the City Council voted to break with longstanding guidance developed with Sacramento County that require the opening of emergency shelters only when the temperature is 32 degrees or colder. The Council declared an extreme weather emergency and opened overnight shelters that have operated every day since, except for a 10-day break when several people working at the Library Galleria shelter downtown tested positive for Covid-19.

The existing warming centers are run by First Step Communities through a contract with the city. Council members agreed that the additional shelters should also be run by outside entities that have more expertise in managing such short-term respite shelter. Mayor Steinberg’s resolution approved by the Council also directs city staff to look at opening additional centers in neighborhoods outside downtown.

Homeless advocates testified in strong support of the change Tuesday. “We as a coalition have always felt the current weather criteria are random and frankly inhumane,” said Bob Erlenbusch, executive director of the Regional Coalition to End Homelessness.

Mayor Steinberg recently argued in an op-ed published in The Sacramento Bee that overnight, walk-in shelters are an important short-term step to get people experiencing homelessness indoors and connected to services while the City works on longer-term solutions like a master siting plan on homeless housing solutions that is expected to come back to the City Council for approval in June. The master plan will designate places around the city for longer-term shelter, tiny homes, permanent housing, and safe camping and parking.

Shelter beds county-wide number about 1,200. The estimated number of people living unsheltered in Sacramento County is at least five times that number.

“If we are serious about housing our unsheltered neighbors, we will commit to dramatically reducing that gap. We cannot afford to shutter available public and private facilities at night when the population of people living outdoors is growing despite all our efforts,” Mayor Steinberg wrote.

Since January, more than 80 people have used the warming centers each night.

Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who has volunteered many nights at the Library Galleria, said having drop-in centers open all the time allows staff to get to know people who use them on a regular basis, and so to make the best choices when it comes to getting them help. “You get to know folks; you get to know their issues.”

Mayor Pro Tem Angelique Ashby, who has also volunteered extensively at the Library Galleria, asked that one of the centers created under the program be reserved for women, children and families. Mayor Steinberg agreed and the language was added to the resolution.

Councilmember JaySchenirer asked City Manager Howard Chan to ask if Covid vaccinations could be administered in the centers to reduce the risk of infection.

Keeping centers open, Schenirer said, is not only the “humane thing” to do, it will help businesses and communities affected by street camping.

“Until we get people off the streets our businesses are never really going to thrive,” he said.